I had one knowledgable retailer tell me recently that Fleischman's Rye is no longer produced by Barton's though it is still listed at their website. However, the website is largely in disuse as none of e-mail links or guest book sign-in are functional. Does anyone know the true story on this rye? Anyone out there tasted it recently? Tasting notes?

Gillman

02-08-2006, 19:57

There is a tasting note, and a very complimentary one, in Jim Murray's 2005 Whisky Bible. However no one as far as I know on our board has located a bottle.

Gary

AVB

02-08-2006, 20:18

Folks in the Hundson Valley sould be able to find it here (http://www.arlingtonwineandliquor.com)

JeffRenner

02-08-2006, 20:33

There is a tasting note, and a very complimentary one, in Jim Murray's 2005 Whisky Bible. However no one as far as I know on our board has located a bottle.

Gary
Not so - see my Sept 29, 2005 post http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=47378#post47378 to which you responded! ;)

At that time, I wrote

Every summer we visit my sister and her family in central Wisconsin, and I always bring back a number of bottles of whiskey. The prices up there are incredible - at least in the city supermarkets. Wisconsinites evidently drink a lot of spirits, as well as beer. Along with Minnesota, a lot of it is brandy, but rye is common, too, at least based on what I see in the supermarkets and bars. Even a little country bar that might have only three American whiskies will have JB, JD and JB rye. You can't miss that yellow label, even in a dark, smoky bar.

Every year I've looked at two ryes and passed them up - Fleishmann's (Barton) and Stephen Foster (HH). Finally, this year, I decided to get a bottle of each, especially after Murray's high score (93) for the Fleishmann's in his '05 Bible.

I got a 1.75 L of the Fleishmann's since it was only $16.48, but only a liter of the Foster (I wasn't expecting much) for $9.98.

The Fleishmann's is excellent. It's the wrong time of day to do a tasting, but it is in the style of Beam - not a lot of wood, lots of rye fruit, sufficiently aged but not so much that the original spirit is lost.
I still have 3/4 of that "handle" left. I should do a side-by-side comparison of it and Jim Beam, but that will have to wait for another time. I'm about to turn in! But I liked it. Again, not at all like most other ryes - minimal barrel comtribution. As I recall, though, it is sweeter than Beam.

The Stephen Foster was not so nice - young and feinty - this in spite of it's being 4yo, although other bottles on the shelf were only 3 yo.

Jeff

Gillman

02-08-2006, 20:59

Thanks Jeff, I stand corrected! That had completely escaped my mind.

Gary

tlsmothers

02-08-2006, 22:40

My Barton's rep tells me that Fleischmann's Rye is being discontinued after promising to get us some to New York. *sigh* I keep begging him to just tell me where I can get some.

His story is that the rye whiskey is going to go into some other whiskey now. I keep tellin' him to tell the powers that be that I can sell this stuff (what I don't drink!), but no one wants to listen. MALT ADVOCATE is writing an article on rye soon. Hopefully the more press the better and we can convince these folks to make some more. Hey, we finally convinced Heaven Hill that Rittenhouse can rock NYC! And it is!

chasking

02-10-2006, 12:58

The growth in knowledge of, interest in, and (I suspect) sales of rye must have increased by several orders of magnitude in recent years. How can Barton not be aware of that? Anecdotal information is that Fleischmann's is quite good; would they really rather get out of a growing market (albeit miniscule compared to bourbon) rather than figure out how to market the stuff properly?

cowdery

02-10-2006, 15:59

Folks in the Hundson Valley sould be able to find it here (http://www.arlingtonwineandliquor.com)

Since nothing else on that list is a rye, I doubt the Fleischmann's is either. They do make a blend and it's probably that.

When I interviewed some Barton executives for an article about a year ago, they were still making it but said Wisconsin was basically the only market. I've never seen nor tried it, but would like to.

tlsmothers

02-10-2006, 16:19

My Barton guy tells me that the Fleischmann's is going to go into a blend now. I'm glad to hear good feedback on it. I'd hate to be pounding the door for it and it just be blah.